Polynesian Voyaging

The Pacific tradition of long-distance open-ocean navigation without instruments, using the star compass, swell patterns, bird flight, and cloud signs to settle the Polynesian Triangle. The double-hulled canoe Hokule’a, built by the Polynesian Voyaging Society (founded 1973), revived the practice: it departed Honolua Bay, Maui, on 1 May 1976 and reached Papeete, Tahiti, on 4 June 1976, navigated by the Satawalese master Mau Piailug. Mau later trained Nainoa Thompson, who developed the modern Hawaiian wayfinding method. The voyage demonstrated deliberate, not accidental, Pacific settlement.